The present invention relates to the processing of tobacco leaf and other tobacco materials, and in particular to the processing of tobacco for the manufacture of smoking articles such as cigarettes.
Cured tobacco leaf conventionally undergoes several processing steps prior to the time that the resulting cut filler is provided. For example, tobacco leaves are threshed in order to separate the tobacco laminae from the stem. The tobacco laminae undergo further processing resulting in cut filler, while the stems are discarded or employed in the manufacture of reclaimed tobacco products which are traditionally of relatively low quality.
The handling, threshing and storing stages of conventional tobacco leaf processing steps result in the formation of considerable amounts of wasted tobacco material. In particular, typical processing conditions cause the formation of relatively large amounts of dust and fines. Such dust and fines are of such a small size as to be of essentially no use in the manufacture of cigarettes. However, it is possible to retrieve some of the dust and fines, and employ these materials with tobacco stems in the manufacture of reclaimed tobacco materials.
It would be highly desirable to provide an efficient process for providing processed tobacco material in the form of cut filler whereby all of the tobacco leaf can be employed and essentially no waste of the cured tobacco leaf is recognized.